Donald Trump reveals a White House staff member has tested positive for coronavirus

President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that another White House staffer has tested positive for the coronavirus.

‘It’s not anybody that was near me,’ he said at his press conference.

‘It was one person,’ Trump added. ‘It was not a person that I was associated with.’ 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany stepped in to say the person will not be identified and it did not affect any events around the White House.

‘We’re not going to confirm the identity of the individual. It did not affect the event and press was not around,’ she said. 

The White House held a signing ceremony on Tuesday for its deal between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. 

The president also attended a town hall meeting in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.  

‘None of yesterday’s events were affected,’ White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told DailyMail.com in a statement.

More than 800 people attended the signing ceremony at the White House for the Abraham Accords. 

Row after row of white chairs were on the South Lawn Tuesday morning, lined up together with no social distancing in between them. Few in the crowd wore face masks.

Senior White House staff and the president receive COVID tests daily after two staffers tested positive for the virus in May, raising questions about the safety protocols in place around the complex.

Additionally anyone meeting with the president or getting near him is tested for the virus. 

Trump has had close calls with the virus before.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of President Trump’s oldest son and a top campaign official, tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore.

Guilfoyle, 51, tested positive ahead of the South Dakota event but her boyfriend Donald Trump Jr., 42, did not.

The couple promptly left to fly back to New York, where they are based. 

In May, both Vice President Mike Pence’s communications director Katie Miller and a Navy valet who served Trump his food tested positive for the virus.

Miller, who also serves as spokesperson for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, tested positive for the coronavirus on May 8th.

After her and the valet tested positive, the White House instituted new protocols for preventing the virus from reaching the president. 

Staff, Secret Service agents and members of the military were seen wearing masks. Additionally, senior staff began to get tested for the disease on a daily basis. 

Trump also began a two week regimen of the anti-malaria hydroxychloroquine as a counter measure to possible exposure. The president claims the drug can help fight off the coronavirus but the FDA has issued a warning that only patients in the hospital with the virus should take the drug.

Pence tested negative despite his spokesperson’s diagnosis. He was seen wearing a mask around the White House in the aftermath. Additionally he and President Trump stayed apart for several days to ensure Pence wasn’t infected.   

The positive tests raised questions about the White House’s policy on trying to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus inside the complex, which includes the West Wing offices where the president works, the Old Executive Office building where many aides are located, the East Wing offices of the first lady, and the Executive Mansion where the first family lives.  

Questions were raised about the safety of the nation’s leadership and the first family after a presidential valet tested positive on May 7th.

The valet was part of the White House Military Office, an elite group of officers and enlisted men who are assigned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.